#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A timely and important new book that challenges everything we think we know about cultivating true belonging in our communities, organizations, and culture, from the #1 bestselling author of Rising Strong, Daring Greatly, and The Gifts of ImperfectionHELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICK

“True belonging doesn’t require us to change who we are. It requires us to be who we are.” Social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, has sparked a global conversation about the experiences that bring meaning to our lives—experiences of courage, vulnerability, love, belonging, shame, and empathy. In Braving the Wilderness, Brown redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarization. With her trademark mix of research, storytelling, and honesty, Brown will again change the cultural conversation while mapping a clear path to true belonging.

Brown argues that we’re experiencing a spiritual crisis of disconnection, and introduces four practices of true belonging that challenge everything we believe about ourselves and each other. She writes, “True belonging requires us to believe in and belong to ourselves so fully that we can find sacredness both in being a part of something and in standing alone when necessary. But in a culture that’s rife with perfectionism and pleasing, and with the erosion of civility, it’s easy to stay quiet, hide in our ideological bunkers, or fit in rather than show up as our true selves and brave the wilderness of uncertainty and criticism. But true belonging is not something we negotiate or accomplish with others; it’s a daily practice that demands integrity and authenticity. It’s a personal commitment that we carry in our hearts.” Brown offers us the clarity and courage we need to find our way back to ourselves and to each other. And that path cuts right through the wilderness. Brown writes, “The wilderness is an untamed, unpredictable place of solitude and searching. It is a place as dangerous as it is breathtaking, a place as sought after as it is feared. But it turns out to be the place of true belonging, and it’s the bravest and most sacred place you will ever stand.”

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Praise for Brene Brown's Rising Strong

"[Brown's] research and work have given us a new vocabulary, a way to talk with each other about the ideas and feelings and fears we've all had but haven't quite known how to articulate. . . . [She] empowers us each to be a little more courageous."--The Huffington Post

"It is inevitable--we will fall. We will fail. We will not know how to react or what to do. No matter how or when it happens, we will all have a choice--do we get up or not? Thankfully, Brene Brown is there with an outstretched arm to help us up."--Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why and Leaders Eat Last

"With a fresh perspective that marries research and humor, Brown offers compassion while delivering thought-provoking ideas about relationships--with others and with oneself."--Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, is a research professor at the University of Houston where she holds the Huffington Foundation–Brené Brown Endowed Chair at the Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent the past sixteen years studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy and is the author of three #1 New York Times bestsellers: The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, and Rising Strong. Her TED talk—“The Power of Vulnerability”—is one of the top five most-viewed TED talks in the world, with more than thirty million views. Brown lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband, Steve, and their children, Ellen and Charlie.

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This book is the most important you will read today. It takes courage to listen to the deep truths within and then to live them, but it is the only way for humanity to remain as a viable, workable community. Thank you, Brene Brown.

Braving The WildernessThe Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone By Brene Brown

Reviewed by Jay Gilbertson

To be honest, the title threw me, the second one more effectively describes what this book is really about. Author Brown is no stranger to self-help books and happens to be good friends with the queen of self-help, Oprah, and a regular guest on her show. The book’s main thrust is of our need to belong, how it was lost and ways to find it again. Given the increasing numbers of Americans suffering from loneliness, this topic is extremely important for all of us to look at more closely. Brown is a qualitative grounded theory researcher. It’s a pretty vague job description and allows her to mush together many different forms of research and gear it to her own goal. In this particular book, her focus was on “…trying to understand what we call the main concern of study participants. When it comes to belonging…What are people trying to achieve? What are they worried about? They want to be a part of something—to experience real connection with others—but not at the cost of their authenticity, freedom, or power.” One of the main issues so many she interviewed expressed was that of being ‘spiritually disconnected,’ a diminishing sense of shared humanity. What seems to bind us together now is shared fear and disdain, not common humanity, shared trust, respect or love. Emerging from their responses, four elements of what Brown describes as ‘true belonging.’

Early on I was a little concerned as to exactly what was intended by spirituality. In no way is this meant as anything remotely related to any particular religion. Brown is careful to define it as recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion, a cornerstone of some, but not all religions.Once it became clear that this was a universal all-encompassing concept that we all, as humans, crave—to belong—it was simply a matter of defining how we became so separated from one another.“In the case of the United States, our three greatest fault lines—cracks that have grown and deepened due to willful neglect and a collective lack of courage—are race, gender, and class.”The ‘cracks’ that have driven a wedge into the basic reason we are experiencing such a major shift away from belonging is something we are all very familiar with. From Black Lives Matter to all the bathroom issues to the One-Percenters, we are overwhelmed with messages and constant reminders of our vast differences.The majority of the book focuses on an expansion of the four elements mentioned earlier and is well worth exploring. However, it could have been edited into a much shorter read as several of the antidotes loll into lecture-mode and had me skimming. The bottom line is something we all know to be true and the main reason there is a collective, soul-deep desire to belong.“We are wired for connection. But the key is that, in any given moment of it, it has to be real.”As in person, not online. Imagine that.